Mobile fans get loud as New Orleans Saints win the Super Bowl

View full size(Press-Register/Chip English) Left to right: Gregory Howard, Irene Neno and Sheree Bailey react to a Saints first down during a Super Bowl party Sunday February 7, 2010 at the French Market on Government Street.MOBILE, Ala. -- Anyone who doesn't believe a crowd of about 50 can make a 110-decibel roar should have been at the French Market Café as Tracy Porter intercepted Peyton Manning's pass and took it 74 yards to the end zone Sunday night.

There may have been bigger Super Bowl parties all over Mobile for the New Orleans Saints' matchup against the Indianapolis Colts. But the Louisiana-style eatery in the Loop, across from Little Flower Catholic Church, was as deep in the blue of the flame of Saints passion as one could find in Mobile.

As the clock ticked off its last seconds, the champagne corks began to fly off the ceiling as a room full of faithful in black and gold cheered and embraced.

For restaurant owner Lyle Degelos, the road to the Super Bowl party at his restaurant was a long comeback from Hurricane Katrina and personal loss.

Degelos came to Mobile before the hurricane to stay with his daughter, an embryologist at Mobile Infirmary. The Aug. 29, 2005 storm destroyed his house and left it under 10 feet of water, he said.

"I couldn't get back to New Orleans for six to eight weeks," Degelos said. Meanwhile, his wife, Ann, was diagnosed with colorectal cancer, he said.

Degelos and his wife decided to seek treatment at Mobile Infirmary, so the couple remained in Mobile. As time passed, Degelos, who said he had owned restaurants in New Orleans in the past, decided to build one in Mobile.

The French Market opened on Oct. 15, 2008, but Ann Degelos died three weeks earlier, on Sept. 21. "She died on my birthday," he said.

The restaurant, festooned with giant Mardi Gras masks and a Carnival-themed holiday tree, was filled almost to its capacity of 60 as the game unfolded.

View full size(Press-Register/Chip English)Saints fan Shawn Fitzgerald nervously looks on as the Saints battle the Colts during Super Bowl XLIV on Sunday February 7, 2010 at the French Market on Government Street. Seated below Fitzgerald is her nine-year-old son, Dakin. Shawn Fitzgerald and her 9-year-old son, Dakin, enjoyed the game from the three-sided, marble-topped lunch counter nearest to the biggest TV. But she said her husband, Michael, had a better seat. He spent Sunday at the game itself.

Shawn Fitzgerald said the ticket cost her husband about $1,000. She said she was happy to come to the French Market, where her sister is part of the staff.

Down the lunch counter toward a corner, 35-year-old Carlos Broadnax kept a running analysis of every play, trying at first to stay detached from the shouting that rolled frequently through the crowd.

Broadnax, who said he is a lifelong Saints fan, said he's noticed more people wearing Saints colors in public lately. "Most Saints fans I know have been fans for a long, long time," he said.

"I remember when few people wore (New England) Patriots colors, but once they started winning, you saw those a lot," he said.

By the time the Saints got an overturned call on Lance Moore's catch for a 2-point conversion, Broadnax sounded more like a fan than an analyst, leading the cheers.

As the game ended and the celebration began, Degelos remained calm but with a serene smile. "How do I feel? Super, unbelievable!" he said.